City News

Volunteers in Policing Celebrates 20 Years of Serving Cypress

Post Date:02/26/2018

The Volunteers in Policing (VIP) is a team of dedicated volunteers who assist the police department in providing service to the community. The VIP program was created in 1997 and has become a vital part of the police department organization. Since the beginning of the program, VIPs have donated over 75,000 volunteer hours to help keep Cypress safe!

Participants in the VIP program are trained to assist the police department with a variety of duties and have proven to be a valuable asset to the community. VIPs serve as extra “eyes, ears and hands” of the police department and bring new skills and expertise to the job. One important duty of the VIPs, is to assist with vacation house checks for Cypress residents who are out of town. Since the beginning of the program, VIPs have completed over 32,000 vacation house checks throughout Cypress. VIPs also help with administrative, traffic, vehicle maintenance, special events and community services tasks.

VIP participants come from a variety of backgrounds including communications, law and legal services, private business, educators, and former law enforcement or military. Some VIPs are retirees who want to spend their free time giving back to the community. All of our volunteers bring knowledge and expertise in a variety of fields and are committed to serving the police department and the Cypress community.

Two other components of our police volunteer program are our RACES group and the Chaplain program.

Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES) provides communications personnel to government agencies in times of extraordinary need. Cypress RACES volunteers train throughout the year with special exercises and public-service events. Each RACES member is a licensed ham radio operator, ranging from “technician” to “extra” class FCC li- cense. Since its reinstatement in March 2010, the RACES participants have volunteered over 5,800 hours of service to the community.

Cypress Chaplains serve the community in a variety of ways. They may be called upon to support victims in times of crises, assist in death notifications, respond to suicide incidents, and serve as part of a crisis response team. Our Chaplains may visit sick or injured personnel, serve as a counseling resource to members of the police department, and serve as a liaison with other clergy in the community.

The dedicated commitment of the Volunteers in Policing is a very valuable resource to the Cypress Police Department and the community at large. The pride and enthusiasm demonstrated by the volunteers help keep Cypress a safe community. Congratulations to all of our volunteers and thank you for your continued dedication to the City of Cypress.